LONDON, July 18 (APM) - Republicans in the U.S. Congress are in chaos over healthcare legislation after a second attempt to pass a bill in the Senate collapsed late on Monday, with President Donald Trump calling for an outright repeal of Obamacare.
The U.S. president campaigned on a pledge to repeal and replace Barack Obama's healthcare system, but after six months of failed attempts, the Republicans conceded they could not manage it.
The decision was announced by Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, after two more senators said they would not support his latest healthcare bill late on Monday, leaving the Republican leader short of the votes needed to pass it.
Instead he said he would adopt a strategy advocated by Trump: moving to repeal Obamacare but with a two-year delay, which leaders hope will buy them time to come up with the replacement they have been unable to find so far.
"Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful," said McConnell.
Half an hour earlier, Trump tweeted: "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate." He added: "Dems will join in!", a notion seen by many in Congress as unlikely.
The latest setback delivered a major political blow to Trump, who has failed to win any major legislative initiative in the first six months of his presidency.
The idea of a two-year delay was rejected by Republicans months ago in favour of simultaneously repealing and replacing Obamacare in order to avoid chaos in insurance markets.
Republican Senator John McCain, who is recovering from surgery in his home state of Arizona (APMMA 53937), urged a much different change of course - bipartisanship.
"The Congress must now return to regular order, hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties" and pass a bill that "finally provides Americans with access to quality and affordable health care," McCain said in a statement.
It was not yet clear whether Republicans would get behind the latest Trump-McConnell plans or McCain's.
Like McCain, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer held out the possibility of bipartisanship. In a statement, he urged Republicans to "start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."
Republicans in Congress had been hoping to settle on a healthcare bill before theAugust recess so they could begin work in earnest in September on a wide-ranging rewrite of the U.S. tax code.
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan had no immediate comment on the next steps he would like to see following the collapse of the healthcare bill in the Senate.
Senator Bernie Sanders, the former Democratic presidential candidate, celebrated what he termed the "collapse" of the Republican effort.
"This is a great victory for the millions of Americans who stood up and fought back against this dangerous legislation," Sanders said in a statement.
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